Simba - 7. Simba Ch 7

“Do you know what all of that means Cadet Lumbasi, or maybe Cadet Blackwood would like to remind you,” the CO said and looking at me he nodded his head. “Cadet Lumbasi, it means that you did not heed my warning, when I twice told you to mind what you say as it may affect your life as well as my own. You did not see my ID badge and you did not have this conversation with me or the CO, do you understand me Cadet?” I said to Lumbasi.

“Yes Corporal, I understand,” Lumbasi replied, and with that I took one step back and snapped into attention, “Thankyou Cadet Blackwood, you can go now, Lumbasi, stay as we have other matters to discuss,” the CO said and I saluted before leaving the office and heading back to barracks.

“What happened and where is Lumbasi?” some of the other cadets in my platoon asked, “He is discussing his future with the CO, apart from that I can not tell you any more, and when he returns, I suggest that you leave him be,” I replied. When Lumbasi returned to the barracks just before lights out, he didn’t look at all happy, actually it looked like that he may have been crying.

When we returned from breakfast, Lumbasi was gone, his locker was empty and open and his mattress was folded over, with the folded blankets and pillow on top, so I knew that he had been forced to resign, and that we would not see him again.

It was the start of week six of basic training, we had just completed some drill practice on parade, and we were standing at ease, when our platoon commander noticed the Base Commander and a senior officer approaching, and I smiled broadly when I recognised whom it was, and he returned my smile.

“Lieutenant, what are your movements now?” the Lt Colonel asked, as he and the Brigadier approached. “They have weapons training now Sir,” our platoon commander replied. “Lieutenant, this is Brigadier Purnell from HQ, he would like a minute with Cadet Blackwood, if you can spare him,” the Lt Colonel said.

“Yes sir, that is fine, Cadet Blackwood knows where to go once he has finished speaking with the Brigadier, sir,” the Lieutenant said nervously as he glanced at the senior ranking officer, before dismissing the platoon, and following them off the parade ground, while the Lt colonel headed back to his office.

I snapped to attention and saluted, “Stand easy… Hello Jacob, your Uncle informed me that you are in basic training, and I was here for a meeting, so I thought I would come over to say hello to you,” the Brigadier said to me. “Hello sir, good to see you again,” I replied as I shook his hand.

“So, how are you going with basic training?” the Brigadier asked, “Just as Uncle Nat described it sir, hell,” I replied with a smile and the Brigadier laughed. “I heard that you had a slight problem with a former cadet in your platoon?” the Brigadier asked me.

“Wow, it went that far up the chain?” I asked, “Yes indeed, and past my rank too, mainly because you have already been listed as a recruit for the RACS, and possibly further towards DIO or ASD,” the Brigadier informed me.

“I had no idea Sir, I have been considering my options now that I am in the Army, as you may already know, I have just completed two years of a double Science degree in Adelaide. Now that you have told me this news, about the Signals Corps and maybe going on to Defence Intelligence or the Signals Directorate, I better consider looking into Electronic Engineering or something like that,” I replied.

“I am glad to hear it, are your folks still overseas in Canada?” the Brigadier asked, “Yes sir, they came home for Christmas just gone which was really nice, but they are back in Canada no,” I replied.

“One last thing, your Uncle Nathan is about to get a promotion, as you may know he has been acting CO of Warradale Barracks, and now he will be promoted to full Colonel and become the permanent CO of Warradale,” the Brigadier announce.

“That is awesome news sir, when will he be notified of his promotion?” I responded, “Tomorrow at noon, Adelaide time, so you can congratulate him after he has received official notice. It is good to see you again Jacob, take care, and keep up the good work,” the Brigadier said to me, and I snapped to attention and saluted, before he headed back to the admin building.

“What did the Brigadier want to speak to you about?” Hugh Parry whispered to me, as I joined the line at the shooting range, “I have known him for a few years now, and he wanted to see how I was getting along with basic training,” I whispered back.

“Is that all?” Hugh said, “Yes, that and he suggested to me some alternative ideas to where I may like to go within the Army once I have graduated from here, I will talk to you later,” I replied.

Hugh was the closest mate I had within the Platoon, we got along really well, and we had simular interests in outdoor adventures, but nothing as grand as what I have done, just long trips on hiking tracks around the south east of Australia, including in Tasmania.

I did not reveal some of the incredible things that I have done since I was twelve years old, although I think he has a fair idea, after the rumours started. When we had our first day off after five weeks of tough training, I was looking forward to catching up on some sleep and making a few phone calls to family and friends.

On Friday evening, I checked into a motel, in the suburb of Cartwrights Mill in Northern Wagga, deciding to splash out so that I will not be disturbed and turning off my mobile. I had a long hot shower before heading to bed early, and it was sometime in the morning when there was a knock on the door that dragged me out of a deep sleep.

Glancing at the clock, which read 8 am, I staggered to the door to stop the continuous knocking on the door. “You are a hard man to track down,” Hugh said as he smiled to me, and reluctantly I stepped aside to let him in. “Nice boxers by the way,” Hugh said to me, and I quickly dressed.

“What are you doing here disturbing my day of rest?’ I asked, “I had nothing to do, so I thought I would hang out with my closest mate, that is you,” Hugh replied, “Any specific reason than that?” I asked, “Yeah, it is my 19^th Birthday today,” Hugh replied.

“Well I guess that is a good reason, how about we go out for some brunch to celebrate,” I suggested, and he agreed to this. About five minutes later, we arrived at a café, and we ordered a large Brunch meal each, as we sat back to enjoy the late summer day, which was turning out to be glorious.

“Tell me my friend, before you joined the Army, and started training what were you doing before that?” Hugh asked me casually, and I thought about this for a moment, considering what I could and what I could not tell him about my past involvement with the Army, over three years earlier.

“Well, I can tell you that I was sworn in as a member of the Army when I was 16 years old, because my Uncle who is an Army Major and I were involved in an investigation that involved the DIO, which is short for Defence Intelligence Organisation.

Although I am a cadet doing basic training, I am actually a honourary Corporal, attached to the DIO, and like my uncle I have an Australian Government Security Clearance,” I started to explain quietly. “Wow, so I am guessing that you can not go into detail on what happened, and that I can not repeat this to anyone… is that why Cadet Lumbasi left us?” Hugh responded.

“In a way yes, he has a big mouth and doesn’t know when to close it. Brigadier Parnell, who you saw come and talk to me last week, was the leading investigator on the matter, which involved a former wanted Army officer, who had a point to make and started stalking us.

Anyway, once Uncle Nat remembered his name and we worked out why he was stalking us, he was eventually caught and put back behind bars. Even thou the case are well and truly over, the Army had decided to let me keep my security clearance, just in case I may be needed again, and that is why I was encouraged to join up officially and start basic training. Before this, I had just completed my second year of University studies in Environmental Science and Conservation.

From here, the Army has plans for me, what they are I am not sure, all I do know is that I have a hell of a lot more training to do including three years at ADFA,” I said to my friend. “That’s cool, and don’t worry me will not say a word about your past with the… actually, I have forgotten it all already,” Hugh said smiling and I just laughed.

“What about you? What do you want to do once you have completed basics?” I asked Hugh, “Well, I was thinking something like Communications and IT,” Hugh replied, “That is a good field to be in, and you never know, we may bump into one another along the way,” I said.

After we had finished brunch, we headed back to the motel where I collected my backpack with water bottle and Hugh grabbed his from his car, and we set off on a hike up around the district, and we ended back at the Motel a bit after two hours later.

“You know, for a man who has an artificial foot, you do extremely well with hiking,” Hugh commented to me as we neared the bottom of the mountain, “That is probably because I have many high mountains around the world, some of them that are out of the league of just an average person,” I replied.

“What mountains would those be?” Hugh asked, “Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Everest Base Camp in Nepal, Mount Kenya in Kenya and the Matterhorn in Switzerland, are the four highest mountains I have climbed in that order,” I replied.

Hugh’s mouth dropped open, surprised at my reply, and it took him a few moments to come up with a response, “Are you serious, you have climbed all of those mountains?” Hugh asked, “Yes and a lot more, including Mt Cook in New Zealand and Mount Kosciuszko here in Australia,” I replied.

“Holy Bamboo Shoots, that is incredible, so you really are a famous mountain climber?” Hugh said eventually, “Yes, but all I can do now is just hike trails and only mountains that have hiking trails on them, anything tougher, I can’t do no more than that, because of my foot,” I replied, sounding a little disappointed.

“What do you folks think of all of this adventure stuff?” Hugh asked, “They are fully supportive, as long as I take care, although it is usually with Uncle Nat that I take these adventures with, all except my last hiking trip, which resulted in my disability, and that was in Tasmania.

Mum is a specialist Doctor and Dad is an Engineer, and they have been living and working in Canada for most of my high schooling, so I lived with Uncle Nat,” I replied. “So Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain, what is that like to climb?” Hugh asked.

“Awesome, our family owns a property at the base of that mountain, and it is where I spent my first five years, after been born in Adelaide, and returned to Tanzania at the age of three months. I was on Mum’s back the first time I was at the top of Kilimanjaro, at the age of two years,” I replied.

“Wow, that is incredible, and how many times have you been back up there?” Hugh asked, “Twice, when I was sixteen and the last time was after my accident, and I had two guides with me, which was just before I returned to Australia, two years ago,” I replied.

Once Hugh had left to return to the base, I checked out of the motel, as I had arranged for a late checkout, and with my overnight bag, I spent the next hour having a bit more of a look around Wagga, before I caught a taxi back to the base at Kapooka.

As expected, the second half of the basic training was just as intense, maybe more because we were continuing to learn new things each day, as well as keeping up with our fitness and attending training lectures and weapons training.

It was while on a long distance march, just over one week away from graduation, when disaster struck me, I landed on s small rock, which made my artificial foot to roll, like what an ankle does and usually results in a badly twisted ankle. For me, because my foot was part titanium and part rubber, the strain on my lower leg was too great, and I heard an enormous crack, before I crashed to the ground.

I was in pain, a hell of a lot of pain, and we were at least 20 kilometres from the base, just out of the small town of The Rock, located southwest of Kapooka, as we had been following the railway access track as we have done many times before in the past few weeks.

Hugh was at my side and quickly worked out what was wrong, and our platoon commander was called, and told that we had a medical emergency. At first, he thought I was just slacking off, but when he saw the odd shape of my lower leg, he pulled out he mobile to call for an ambulance.

It only took fifteen minutes for the local volunteer ambulance to arrive, with he local police arriving a few minutes earlier, and once on a stretcher, I was carried across the railway line and to the ambulance parked on the side of the Olympic Highway. Once secured inside, I was rushed to Wagga Base Hospital thirty kilometres away, but it felt much further than that.

Once they had seen the extent of my damaged leg, they stabilised it before arranging for me to be flown to Canberra to the National Private Hospital, where they have the skilled surgeons to deal with my injury. Once I was seen too and heaps of tests and X-rays and scans had been done, I was informed that I would need at least two operations, and that I had a long road to recovery again, that will take from six to eight weeks.

Before heading off for my first surgery, I arranged to call my Uncle in Adelaide, “What have you done, I have just received a call from Kapooka, informing me that you were injured during a long march during training,” Uncle Nat said as soon as he answered the call.

“Hello Uncle, I have broken my leg just above the joint with my artificial foot, and they say it will take at least eight weeks to heal, and that my days in the Army are probably over. I am currently in Canberra Private Hospital, about to go into the first of two ops,” I replied.

“Well think positive, and by the time you are out of theatre, I should have arrived,” Uncle Nat said to me, “Please don’t call Mum and Dad, they will just worry, and probably jump on a plane to come and see me, which is a bit too much, lets just wait and see how the surgery goes,” I said.

“Ok, I will hold off calling them for now, see you soon, bye,” Uncle Nat said to me, before ending the call.